Lot 59. A fine and very rare parcel-gilt 'rhinoceros' silver dish , Tang dynasty, 8th-9th century, 15.2cm., 6in. Estimate 40,000 — 60,000 GBP. Lot sold 390,100 GBP. Photo: Sotheby's.

of shallow circular shape, the flaring sides supported on a short splayed footring, the centre finely decorated in repoussé and parcel-gilt with the figure of a stylised rhinoceros, standing four-square, his head with a pointed smout facing left, issuing a long and a short horn and ears laid back, his stout figure with a scaly hide, supporting a lotus howdah carrying three large flowers, the figure enclosed by a raised and gilt ring, the rim similarly set with two raised and gilt lines, the back undecorated. WEIGHT 317g.

Note: Depictions of a rhinoceros are extremely rare in the Tang dynasty, and in Chinese art in general, although the two-horned rhinoceros species depicted on this dish is recorded to have survived into the Tang dynasty in the Lingnan region of Guangdong and Guangxi, one of the main centres for Tang silver production. Compare a small parcel-gilt silver box from the Hejiacun hoard and now preserved in the Shaanxi History Museum, Xi'an, also decorated with a small rhinoceros, published in Zhongguo jin yin boli falangqi quanji, vol. 2, Shijiazhuang, 2000, pl. 32. 

A silver bowl decorated in repoussé with a rhinoceros was included in the exhibition Imperial Gold from Ancient China, Part II, Oriental Bronzes Ltd, London, 1991, cat. no. 6. In the exhibition catalogue it is mentioned, ibid., p. 22, that the ' anatomical portrayal of the animal is incorrect but it is characteristic of its Chinese interpretation. According to the official text recording the history of the Tang dynasty, rhinoceroses were sent to the Tang court by the South East Asians as tribute and gifts'. 

A fragmentary quatrefoil oval silver gilt bowl with a reclining rhinoceros in the centre was also recovered from the Belitung wreck that sank off Indonesia in the early 9th century, probably on its way to Iran (as yet unpublished). 

Another silver box with the motif of a single seated rhinoceros, in the Hakutsuru Fine Art Museum, Kobe,was included in Sekai bijutsu taizenshu: Toyo hen, vol. 4, Tokyo, 1997, pl. 166. 

For related examples of vessels decorated with animals in gilt repoussé on a plain silver ground, see a dish with a single mythical beast fashioned in heightened gilding, from the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrated in Tangdai jinyin qi, Beijing, 1985, pl. 1; another dish decorated with a two-horned beast, in the Museum of Inner Mongolia, published in Zhang Jingming, Zhongguo beifang caoyuan gidai jinyin qi, Beijing, 2005, pls. 70-72; a Tang silver box of quatrefoil shape decorated with a scene depicting a lion attacking a deer, offered at Christie's London, 19th June 1991, lot 45; and a lobed box with a crouching animal motif, sold in these rooms, 10th June 1986, lot 38. Further examples of dishes of various forms with animal motifs in raised gilt are published in Zhongguo jin yin boli falangqi quanji, op.cit., pls. 46-48.

Sotheby's. London, Masterpieces of Chinese Precious Metalwork: Early Chinese Gold and Silver, 14 May 2008